Boy Erased(2018)
Drama/Coming of age
Finally! A mainstream Australian cast/director creating a film solely focussed around important LGBT societal and personal issues! I am HERE FOR IT. Based on Garrard Conley’s memoir of the same name, this film is so necessary for the LGBTQI+ community, for families everywhere and for the Australian film industry. It definitely lived up to expectations from the aesthetically pleasing cinematography to the graphic depictions of how gay men are treated within contemporary America. I was so happy to see characters that had not been stereotyped to fit the usually flamboyant, openly queer archetypes we may be used to seeing on screen. I was even more thankful that the film captured not only the borderline torture that conversion therapy entails, but other issues such as hypocrisy, shame and sexual assault that many LGBT people face today. Performance wise, Nicole Kidman once again delivered her lines excellently, showing true emotion and connection to her real life counterpart as Jared(Garrard)’s mother, but the stellar performances truely came from Lucas Hedges as Jared and director Joel Edgerton as Victor Sykes. Much like ‘BlackkKlansman’(2018, Lee), ‘Boy Erased’ forces it’s audience to apply these somewhat ancient ideals to our current social climate by reminding us that PEOPLE STILL ENDURE THIS HATRED. I hope to see this film win at least one award that it’s been nominated for, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up as a predominantly Australian film.

Who has time to grieve in the kingdom of lies...Can you imagine Tom At The Farm - a thriller about a man who has to visit the family of his deceased lover - told episodically as a series you can watch on your phone? Our curators can. #sscuratorpicks